Aichi Sendou
Aichi Sendou is the main protagonist of Cardfight!! Vanguard. He is a somewhat shy and timid young man who wishes to be a Vanguard Fighter, but has never had the chance to have a real battle until his second encounter with Kai Toshiki. His first defeat was against the Oracle Think Tank user Misaki Tokura. When starting to play Vanguard, he believes more in himself, becoming a powerful Vanguard Fighter. Name According to KeroKero Ace September 2011, Aichi's surname is written with the kanji for vanguard (先導), the forward element in a military formation (and, of course, a reference to the title of the franchise). His forename primarily refers to the Aichi prefecture of Chubu, Japan. This follows a general trend in Vanguard of using historical names for characters. "Aichi" as a name originates from the third volume of the Man'yōshū, Japan's oldest collection of poetry, where it was referred to as Ayuchi, the Ayuchi-gata tidal flats. History Not much information about Aichi's past has been revealed in the series so far, except that he met Kai Toshiki when he was younger and at that time he was always bullied by others. During the fateful encounter with Kai, who was still a friendly teenager, he gave him the card Blaster Blade, telling him to imagine himself big and strong, like the royal knight depicted on the card. Aichi couldn't picture himself any stronger at that moment, but the card gave him courage. He constructed a deck in the hopes of finding Kai and having a cardfight with him, but shortly after their encounter, Kai had apparently moved away. Aichi also lacks a father figure, for whatever reason, but lives with his mother and little sister, Emi. It is shown that Aichi isn't interested in school and his sister always woke him up, though this behavior disappears after he starts playing Cardfight!! Vanguard. Season 1 Biography Aichi is a student in Hitsue Middle School. He is introduced as a self-contained boy with low self-esteem, as seen when he is asked by his teacher to base an opinion, to which he gives an answer that makes him seem cowardly in appearance to the other students. When Kai introduced him to play Vanguard, he gained a lot of friends like Morikawa, Miwa and Izaki, and later his teammates that becomes his best friends - Kai Toshiki, Misaki Tokura and Kamui Katsuragi. When Q4 begins to play in the Regionals, he becomes friend with members of teams like Handsome, and when they forward to Nationals, he become friend with members of Team Caesar. Maybe Aichi is weak, but he is respected by other Fighters, like the members of Team Jurassic Army. Personality At first, he is a shy, taciturn and timid boy who doesn't stand out. He is always kind and nice to everyone. Later in the series, he appears to be more confident in himself and it resulted a boost on his Cardfight skills. After the Training Summer Camp, Aichi gains PSY Qualia, which manifests as him having a vision of that fight's result while his eyes glow. Like Ren, using this power normally gives Aichi strong headaches, and occasional fainting. Kai became worried that Aichi might be consumed by this power like Ren did. Aichi's power soon overcomes him as Kai predicted, and starts to turn like Ren Suzugamori. Ultra Rare identified this power as "PSY Qualia". Ren gave him a Shadow Paladin deck, which appears to fuel his PSY Qualia, and changed the color of the lights during his Rides and Calls from blue to dark blue combined with black. Later in the series, after Team Q4 qualify trough the Preliminaries of their second National Championship, Kai fights Aichi. When the fight is almost over, Aichi has a vision of Blaster Blade that tells him that he has a big strength that he's always had, and he doesn't need a perfect constructed deck to win. After recognizing Blaster Blade as his only and true Avatar, Aichi stops using his PSY Qualia, although his cards answered his call during his fight with Kenji Mitsusada. However, Ren noted that Aichi won without Psy Qualia, as did Kai. Later, Aichi goes to Foo Fighters' headquarters with Ultra-Rare to watch the fight between Kai and Ren, with the former losing. Ren noted that he received Phantom Blaster Overlord from Suiko in the process. After the battle, Aichi tries to comfort Kai, but Kai tells Aichi to get away from and storms off. Suiko then manifests two spheres of energy, one of darkness and the other of light, and says that Ren chose the path of darkness and now Aichi must choose his path, and presumably a new card. After the battle between Kai and Ren, Aichi and Q4 (minus Kai) return to the stadium for the finals of the National Tournament to fight Team Foo Fighter AL4. Aichi remains on the sidelines while Kamui fights Tetsu and Misaki fights Asaka. After these battles Aichi takes the field to battle Ren in the final match of the tournament. Throughout the match Ren tempts Aichi to use his Psyqualia ability but Aichi constantly refuses while Ren constantly uses Psyqualia to cause Aichi to feel the pain of each of Ren's attacks. Aichi succumbs to the temptation after he calls Blaster Dark to his Rear Guard. Using Psyqualia's power, he then begins to unleash his full power on Ren, causing Ren to feel the attack from Aichi's units just as Ren had done to Aichi previously. From the stands, Kai shouts to Aichi not to fall back into Psyqualia's grasp and brings Aichi back to his senses once more. After Ren Crossrides Phantom Blaster Overlord, Aichi is backed into a corner when his guard is broken and Phantom Blaster Overlord's attack hits. After checking a Heal Trigger, Aichi proceeds to ride Majesty Lord Blaster and defeat Ren using its skill as well as removing the power of Psyqualia from Ren. After the match, Aichi and Team Q4 are crowned the National Champions. A few days after the tournament, Aichi runs to Card Capital to see his friends while saying that he can no longer use Psyqualia. As he enters Card Capital, all his friends are there waiting for him, including Kai who has been waiting to battle him. Aichi then proceeds to start a battle with Kai. During season 2, he displays more of his calm and determined personality while he was fighting with other fighters, even when he was in the brink of losing against Christopher Lo after the latter got PsyQualia powers. Season 2 During season 2, he uses a Gold Paladin deck. Aichi is taking part in Asia Circuit and travels around Asia to fight different fighters, along with the rest of Team Q4. In episode 66, he fought Takuto Tatsunagi, who has a Gold Paladin deck. After the fight, he realizes his deck consisted of Gold Paladin units instead of Royal Paladins. In the second episode, he learned about the new Limit Break ability. In episode 68, Aichi takes on Kamui and battles with his Gold Paladin deck and utilizes the Limit Break for the first time. Episode 69 has Aichi going along with Kamui and Misaki to PSY, where he witnesses Misaki fighting Rekka in which Misaki loses. Afterwards Aichi, Misaki and Kamui gain more drive to succeed in the Circuit. Once Aichi and Q4 land in Singapore in they meet up with Kenji Mitsusada and Team Caesar by chance and then meet with a boy named Chris Falo and his teammates: Lee Shenlon and Pajeel Ali. After parting ways with Team Caeser and the young boys Aichi sees Takuto in a car driving away and proceedes to give chase. After being denied and audience with Takuto he walks through town until Kourin finds him and proceeds to give him his new trump card, Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel. He then returns to the hotel Q4 is staying at and proceeds to modify his deck. The next day the Circut begins with Q4 going up against Team Shinobi with Aichi going up against Jack. During his match Kamui beats his opponent while Misaki loses to hers. Aichi is backed into a corner by Jack and his Murakumo deck until he rides Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel. With Ezel and the help of his Gold Paladins Aichi is able to overcome Jack's Murakumo and enable Q4 to advance to the next round of the Circut. In episode 75, as Aichi fights Chris, Aichi regains his PSY Qualia, while Chris also gets PSY Qualia and starts to go mad. In episode 76, for the first time Aichi uses Kryph to Superior Ride Ezel, but loses to Chris regardless. In episode 80, he and the rest of Team Q4 encounter Ren, who has reformed Team AL4 with Asaka Narumi, and Kai, who has joined Team New AL4. Aichi versus Ren in a cardfight, where Ren regains PSY Qualia through Takuto. Using PSY Qualia, Ren defeats Aichi in episode 81. In episode 82, Aichi and the rest of his team watched the finals of the Seoul stage, Team New AL4 vs Team Caesar. In episode 83, Aichi was brought along with Kamui by Misaki for shopping requested by Shin. He spots Leon Souryuu walking to Card Shop PSY and asks him if he had any business with the shop. They were invited into the shop by Ultra Rare and met Daigo, who is a legendary fighter using the Royal Paladin clan. In episode 84 and 85, Team Q4 is invited to a resort island to train by the Tatsunagi Financial Group and met with Team NAL4. After dinner, Aichi wanted to train but was stop by Ren as he wanted everyone to join in the Test of Courage and was convinced into it. Aichi ended up pairing with Kai for the course and Kai told him that their paths will cross. The next day, Aichi works on his deck and now he is not afraid of fighting with his Gold Paladins and goes back to Japan and waits for the next stage. In episode 86, Aichi participated in Card Shop Handsome's tournament and emerged as the champion after defeating Kamui. He noticed Kenji fighting with Gouki after his match and was told after the fight that Kenji will be studying in SIT and will not participate in any tournaments until he graduates. In episode 87 and 88, Aichi pairs up with Misaki in their tag fight with Team Lao. He rides Pellinore as his Vanguard and uses its Limit Break to power up his units. The pair later won their match against the Lao brothers. Deck Season 1 Royal Paladin At the beginning of the series, Aichi is revealed to possess a Royal Paladin deck, based mostly on human knights and their dog companions. It is revealed that this deck is not quite strong, as it lacks Grade 3 Units, and it is rather all over the place. Aichi comes to rely on a combination of Blaster Blade and Wingal to pull through his first few fights, but Tokura Misaki stops his winning streak. Aichi manages to upgrade his deck with the introduction of the Grade 3 unit, Solitary Knight, Gancelot, which he tries to use unsuccessfully to defeat Katsuragi Kamui and Kourin. Finally, he receives King of Knights, Alfred from Suiko, which, especially when combined with Barcgal, becomes his major ace for a large part of the series, and leads him to the semi-finals of the shop tournament. In preparation for the regionals Aichi upgrades his deck with units from the new booster pack, namely Knight of Truth, Gordon, Gigantech Charger and more importantly Soul Saver Dragon. He uses this Units masterfully despite not having tested them, an early hint that he possesses some sort of supernatural power when Soul Savior Dragon answers his need during the regional finals against Gouki. Blaster Blade still remains a prominent Unit in his deck, even though he begins focusing on Soul Saver Dragon. After Q4's defeat at the nationals, Aichi goes to a training camp with Team Ceasar, where he fights against Yuri Usui. Deck]]He is completely defeated, and Yuri advises him to restructure his deck. With a little help from the manager, and the spirits of the Royal Paladin cards, he creates a powerful deck based around Soul Saver Dragon, High Dog Breeder, Akane and Pongal. However, at the same time, the PSY Qualia begin advancing, and he starts trusting the voice of his cards over his own ability. Therefore, he uses that deck in the next shop and regional tournament, winning all of his matches, even against former AL4 member Kyou Yahagi, with apparent ease. Kai still refuses to acknowledge him, though, since he knows that the power of the PSY Qualia is not Aichi's own power. After the fight between Kai and Aichi, in which Aichi gave up after hearing Blaster Blade's words, he starts to play with his Royal Paladin Deck again. In his final confrontation with Ren, Aichi adjusts his deck so that Blaster Dark is mixed in with his Royal Paladins so that he could use Majesty Lord Blaster's abilities to the fullest. Shadow Paladin Seeking more power, Aichi visits the card shop PSY, where he is confronted by Suzugamori Ren. Ren gives him the Shadow Paladin deck, which completely corrupts him and causes him to abandon his Royal Paladins in favor of the new clan. His first match using this deck is against Kourin - he displays a great mastery in using it thanks to the power of the PSY Qualia, and delivers a crippling defeat to Kourin via Phantom Blaster Dragon's Damned Charging Lance. His new ace becomes Blaster Dark, and his Deck is focused on sacrificing his own units for power, more specifically at the hands of Phantom Blaster Dragon. This is totally unlike him, a fact noticed by most characters. Aichi's original Royal Paladin Deck was themed around the color blue, to contrast Kai's mostly red-based units. His Shadow Paladin Deck ranges from dark blue, to dark grey, to black. The color of his PSY Qualia has also shifted to a much darker hue. After he acquired the Shadow Paladin deck, he abandoned his old deck at card shop PSY. Kourin retrieved it, and presumably gave it to Kai later. Season 2 Gold Paladin In the Asia Circuit Hen, Aichi is forcefully given a Gold Paladin deck to use instead of his Royal Paladins. Initially, his Deck's ace card is Great Silver Wolf, Garmore, but after receiving Incandescant Lion, Blond Ezel from Kourin, he redesigns his deck to incorporate it into his strategies. This deck is similar in strategy to his old Royal Paladin Deck, but it focuses more on calling units from the deck than his previous one. After going to the Vacation Island, Aichi reconstructs his Deck after realizing that he isn't facing the Gold Paladins right. Ezel is still an important part in his deck, but Aichi now puts in more effort to superior calling units from the deck, using the Blade Feather Valkyrie / Flash Edge Valkyrie combination, as well as Nimue and Viviane, and units that can activate their skills upon being called from the Deck, such as Lop Ear Shooter . For this reason, he replaces his starting vanguard to Spring Breeze Messenger, in order to keep his combos going. He also includes White Hare in the Moon's Shadow, Pellinorea second ace. Battles Gallery 75435.jpg|Younger Aichi Aichi Sendou.jpg Aichi Sendou Psyqulia.jpg|Aichi performing his PSY Qualia power. Aichifont.jpg|Aichi and his Avatar Blaster Blade. Aichiseason2.png|Aichi in Season 2. Cardfightvanguardghngb.jpg|Aichi versus Kai Toshiki. Cardfightvanguardsdsd.jpg|Aichi planning his next move. Char aichi02.jpg Ppps.jpg|Aichi`s two personalities, Light & Dark. M259lmEFzt1rnbis5o1 500.jpg|Aichi teaching Takuto about Vanguard. M257kjzKLd1r9t4sfo1 500.jpg 4d60a922.jpg External Links Aichi's Character Song Yuuki no Image Egao no Mirai Preview Yakusoku no Crossroad Preview Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Protagonists Category:Royal Paladin Deck Users Category:Shadow Paladin Deck Users Category:Gold Paladin Deck Users Category:Season 1 Characters Category:Season 2 Characters Category:Character who possessed Psyqualia